SAN DIEGO – A former San Diego mayor and fast-food heiress acknowledged Thursday that she took $2.1 million from her late husband’s charitable foundation in a decade-long gambling spree when she wagered more than $1 billion.
Maureen O’Connor, 66, pleaded not guilty in federal court to a money laundering charge under a deal with federal prosecutors that allows her to defer prosecution for two years as she works to repay the debt.
O’Connor’s game of choice was video poker at casinos in San Diego, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J. Her attorney, Eugene Iredale, said she played for hours at a time at the Barona Resort & Casino near San Diego.
Her net gambling losses topped $13 million from 2001 to 2009, the lawyer said. He estimated his client’s personal fortune once totaled as much as $50 million but said she is now virtually broke.
It marked a stunning fall for O’Connor, a former physical education teacher who was elected to the City Council when she was 25 and became San Diego’s first female mayor in 1986. A two-term Democratic leader in a city known for electing Republicans, she won support with a populist flair and stewardship over major civic projects including a downtown convention center.